Birthday Boy Demarai Gray at the Double for Reggae Boyz
Celebration time for Everton winger, Chelsea-bound Dujuan Richards and Jamaica head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson
Demarai Gray celebrated his 27th birthday in style, bagging a brace to end Heimir Hallgrimsson’s stuttering start as Jamaica head coach as the Reggae Boyz rolled past tame Trinidad & Tobago 4-1 in their first ever CONCACAF Gold Cup meeting last night.
The Everton winger, shortly out of contract and having caught the attention of a Saudi side, found the net twice in Jamaica’s formidable first-half with Leon Bailey also on target. Soca Warriors’ Andre Rampersad reduced the deficit after the interval, with 17-year substitute Dujuan Richards finding the back of the net for his first international goal in additional time.
Hallgrimsson settled for a 1-1 stalemate against seven-time Gold Cup champions USA in their opening game, but against Angus Eve’s Trinidad & Tobago the under pressure Icelandic finally secured his first victory at the helm.
He oversaw a first-half goal feast as the Reggae Boyz hit cruise control to cut through the Soca Warriors like a hot knife through butter. Bobby Decordova-Reid should have woken up the quiet crowd at CITYPARK in St. Louis, but fluffed his second-minute chance by sending his effort into the side netting.
Gray took over as the player to score with style, and broke the deadlock on 14 minutes. A neat move involving Michail Antonio and Bailey was polished off with a fierce drive to the far corner.
Bailey made amends for his penalty debacle against the US to fire home for a 2-0 lead on 17 minutes, breaking away and then picking his spot to leave Denmark-born goalkeeper Nicklas Frenderup rooted to the spot. Yet the Aston Villa ace had to wait to celebrate for VAR confirmation, as it was originally deemed to be offside.
Gray tapped in the third goal on the half-hour mark. Kevon Lambert found Antonio, who squared the ball for ex-England U21 star Gray to score again. And with the Boyz displaying such swagger it appeared that their victory would end up like a cricket score.
Hallgrimsson’s gamble in taking a dozen UK-based players and overlooking players from the Jamaica Premier League for this Gold Cup campaign was finally paying dividends.
The Soca Warriors mixed things up after the turnaround, with a trio of changes that stifled Jamaica’s free-flowing first-half display and there had obviously been a harsh team-talk from Eve.
They came out all guns blazing and were rewarded for moving up a few gears. Andre Rampersad’s cheeky backheel flick surprised skipper Andre Blake, as Trinidad & Tobago reduced the deficit on 49 minutes.
Just five minutes later unmarked Bailey should have sealed the triumph, but scuffed his close-range opportunity by badly firing wide of the target.
With the Soca Warriors finding their feet and rhythm, looking more like Eve’s teams that outwitted Jamaica in March’s pair of friendlies, Hallgrimsson altered his tactics. A double substitution on 62 minutes saw midfielder Daniel Johnson and striker Shamar Nicholson thrown into the fray for a shift from 4-4-2 to 3-4-3.
Nicholson almost made a perfect immediate impact only for his 65th-minute close range effort to be denied by Frenderup, with the rebound bouncing just out of the reach of on-rushing Antonio.
It turned into a scrappy second-half, lacking the prowess and power from the opening 45 minutes, with Antonio and Bailey feeding off the few scraps they were served. Both were substituted with US-based Cory Burke and teenager Richards unleashed.
It was Phoenix All Stars Academy star Richards, who will join Chelsea on his 18th birthday in October, who made a name for himself by scoring two minutes into additional time. His effort took a wicked deflection off the thigh of defender Kareem Moses to register his maiden international goal to restore the three-goal lead.
Having failed to register a single win in his opening seven outings before this success, defensive Hallgrimsson explained at the press conference: “It didn’t affect me at all because I wasn’t counting! I haven’t lost a competitive game for Jamaica, and that’s what matters in the end.
“I’m pretty sure this team will grow, as a lot of new players are starting to play for us. We will only grow as the tournament gets older.”
Hallgrimsson tackles St. Kitts & Nevis at the Levi Stadium in Santa Clara on Sunday, when he can afford to rotate the squad and with another rare win will book a quarter-final berth.
Austin Huggin’s Sugar Boyz, who navigated their way from the preliminary group games, will not be able to qualify for the knockout stages. They fell 3-0 to Trinidad & Tobago on Sunday and last night were annihilated 6-0 by the United States. The Soca Warriors face the US with the victor guaranteed a place in the last eight.
JAMAICA | Blake – Brown (Johnson, 62), Lowe, Bernard, Lawrence (Lembikisa, 45) – Decordova-Reid (Nicholson, 62), Lambert, Gray – Antonio (Burke, 75), Bailey (Richards, 82). Subs: Bell, Boyce-Clarke, Parris, Mariappa, Russell, Waite
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